Page:Niger Delta Ecosystems- the ERA Handbook, 1998.djvu/229

Human Ecosystems: Okoroba-Nembe exploitation. With the exception of the areas around the Shell Oil installations of Nembe Creek the mangrove forests in the Okoroba-Nembe district are in good condition.

20.6 MODERN SOCIETY

The inescapable manifestation of modern mankind in the Okoroba-Nembe district is the oil industry. The night sky around Nembe is bright with gas flares and the rivers around the town are a busy highway for its traffic. At Okoroba, the local water system has been severely damaged by the dredging of the Okoroba River and the construction of a wellhead slot just beside the village. This has created three problems: spoil has been dumped on levee farm-lands disrupting the surface drainage system; the slot has created a large volume of stagnant water beside the village so that locally, the river no longer flushes out or has enough oxygen to support fish; and, the upper reaches of the Okoroba River which used to supply clean washing and drinking water, has been drained. As a result a community that was essentially viable is no longer viable and gastric diseases, the most dangerous being cholera, are on the increase.

Whilst the traditional activities of the local people in the mangrove ecozone are viable, the Nembe communities are not and may be said to be modern in the very worst sense. The dry land on both islands has been built over and most of the wetland has been sand-filled; there is no agricultural land, little fishing and Nembe is no longer a trading centre, so that the local people are largely dependant upon outside income. Yet the island is not modern in any other terms: sanitation conditions are basic so that the river water, particularly in the creek between the two islands is full of human refuse, and parts of the town are inundated with sewage at high tide; clean water is dependant on the one generator and if it fails the only drinking water comes from filthy and poorly maintained wells; electricity is sporadic, often for only one hour a day, in order to pump up water, and then at a low voltage that serves less that half the houses.

Both communities express discontent but this symptom of modern mankind is most apparent in Nembe where it is exacerbated by the oil industry and is concentrated in the young men, especially those who at some stage have worked in the industry and have had money in their pockets. The cause of the frustration is the lack of opportunities contrasted by the obvious but unattainable wealth created for the fortunate few by the oil industry. This leads to anger with the industry, for not paying adequate compensation for taking away "their oil", and a belief that the elders have sold out to the oil industry without considering the future. In addition to all this angst is the infuriating knowledge that a few well placed members of the community have been paid substantial sums to keep the community "sweet".

Human population growth in the Okoroba-Nembe district is unlikely to be lower than other areas in the Niger Delta as a whole. But while communities like Okoroba have a little breathing space, Nembe has nowhere to go and a manifestation of this is the "colonies" on Okoroba land that are already causing friction in the host community. Nonetheless, Okoroba also shows signs of having a population too great to be supported by traditional methods: many of its sons and daughters work in Port Harcourt and both men and women complain about declining agricultural yields (although there is still a surplus going to Nembe); this, of course, is not some peculiar modern phenomenon and is the prime reason for human movements throughout history, but moving is no longer an option today when human populations are so high.

The assumption that population densities are low in the brackish and fresh-water ecozones of the Niger Delta is an illusion: population densities on land that can be settled are high. 227